Muhammad Omar Kamal selling home-made biryani in the scorching sun on the streets of Islamabad, with a Pakistani flag on his shirt. Omar Kamal was a lecturer as well as a motivational speaker but hard time made him to become a roadside vendor. He being unemployed for over four years stepped up with his wife and start the new phase of struggle.
Omar Kamal’s story of challenges and struggle has made Pakistanis emotional and motived at the same time. He received his training in Enterprise Management from LUMS and a high ranking university of Canada but due to shortage of jobs in the market of Pakistan he faced major financial crisis.
Lubna, the wife of Omar Kamal proves to be his other better half in the crisis and they decided to start by selling biryani on roadside. Lubna being a home chef prepares the meal and Omer sell it and earn rizq-e-halal for his family. Due to lack of investment in their home made biryani startup, they were unable to afford the rent of any outlet and Omar started selling home-made biryani in his car.
According to Omar, he cried for 3 months in front of his Lord and asked for forgiveness and pray to get a better future and this was the time when he actually came up with an idea of selling food on the streets of Islamabad. For four years he asked all of his corporate colleagues to get him a stable job but unfortunately not a single person supported him apart from his wife who is still supporting him to grow his new venture of ‘Home-made Biryani’.
He further added that when he first stepped out on the road to ask people to taste his food, he was totally broken by being helpless; however, at that time, he did not quit and again stepped out of his car to sell the food.
The job of roadside vendors is not common in our society for well-educated people; however, the same people are fine by being a roadside vendor in a foreign country. Why? Because this is the perception of the society where people have made these small businesses hard to do or accept from an person belong to a middle class or elite class, Omar stated.
Omar is a patriotic Pakistani and he wants to make life easy for everyone who is struggling to find a job in Pakistan by himself being a great example. He now feels no shame as he is earning in a halal way and wants others to also step up for themselves to make Pakistan a better and easy place to live.
